If the coronavirus pandemic has got you more curious about infectious diseases, then this is the reading list for you. Here are 55 books, both fiction and nonfiction, about infectious diseases, pandemics, and epidemics. These books were recommended by people who responded on Twitter and LinkedIn — mostly microbiologists, epidemiologists, and science enthusiasts — when I asked what were their favorite books about infectious diseases.
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Nonfiction infectious disease books
A Planet of Viruses – Carl Zimmer
America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 – Alfred W. Crosby
And the Band Played On – Randy Shilts
Biohazard – Ken Alibek
Deadliest Enemy – Michael T. Osterholm, Mark Olshaker
Eleven Blue Men – Berton Roueché
Five Quarts – Bill Hayes
Flu – Gina Kolata
Get Well Soon – Jennifer Wright
Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
How To Survive A Plague – David France
Influenza – Jeremy Brown
Inside the Hot Zone – Mark G. Kortepeter
Killer Germs – Barry E. Zimmerman, David J. Zimmerman
Microbe Hunters – Paul de Kruif
Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder
My Own Country – Abraham Verghese
New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers – Robert S. Desowitz
Pale Rider – Laura Spinney
Pandemic – Sonia Shah
Plagues and Peoples – William H. McNeill
Pox Americana – Elizabeth A. Fenn
Rats, Lice and History – Hans Zinsser
Secret Agents – Madeline Drexler
Spillover – David Quammen
Superbugs – Matt McCarthy
The American Plague – Molly Caldwell Crosby
The Coming Plague – Laurie Garrett
The Demon Under the Microscope – Thomas Hager
The Ghost Map – Steven Johnson
The Great Influenza – John M. Barry
The Great Mortality – John Kelly
The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses – Dorothy H. Crawford
The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat – Eric Lax
The Next Pandemic – Ali S. Khan
The Perfect Predator – Steffanie Strathdee, Thomas Patterson
The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis – Thomas Dormandy
Typhoid Mary – Judith Walzer Leavitt
Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases – Paul A. Offit
Virus Hunter – C.J. Peters, Mark Olshaker
Virus: An Illustrated Guide to 101 Incredible Microbes – Marilyn J. Roossinck
Dark Biology Series (4 books – 3 nonfiction, 1 fiction) – Richard Preston
Fiction infectious disease books
A Prayer For the Dying – Stewart O’Nan
Blood Music – Greg Bear
Death in Venice – Thomas Mann, Michael Cunningham
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
The Cry and the Covenant – Morton Thompson
The Decameron – Giovanni Boccaccio
The Plague – Albert Camus
The Plague Tales – Ann Benson
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague – Geraldine Brooks
Which one will you read first?
Microbes in space
Surprised not to see World War Z in the fiction list. One of my favorites that covers everything from infrastructure to communication to con-artistry that evolves around an unknown infectious agent 🙂
Thanks for the addition, Julie! Here’s a link to World War Z by Max Brooks for anyone who is interested: https://amzn.to/2VOaZ3H
I was just talking about Tyfoid Mary with a co-worker recently and the parallels with the Covid 19 epidemic. Good list!
Oh yeah, I can definitely see the parallels with asymptomatic carriers. Glad you like the list!
Like!! I blog quite often and I genuinely thank you for your information. The article has truly peaked my interest.
Favorite infectious disease fiction:
The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
Hi Jennifer, thanks so much for adding your favorite ID fiction book. Here’s the link for anyone who is interested: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis